A Daffodil for Holly

Now that spring seems intent on coming early, I will embrace the change and tackle my least favorite color (artistically speaking): yellow.  I do love the color yellow, don't get me wrong.  I just don't like painting it!  Yet here it is, popping out all over: in daffodils, winter jasmine, witch hazel and forsythia.  If you're going to celebrate the coming of spring, you cannot ignore yellow!  So today, I thought I'd try a daffodil.  Seems easy enough.  Everyone knows what they look like -- six wide petals surrounding the sturdy trumpet.  There are more daffodil varieties than you can imagine, and more hybrids developed each year.  Early bloomers, mid-season and late, miniatures, giants, doubles, in every shade of white and yellow and even salmon pink and orange! 

The challenge of painting yellow is that it is difficult to squeeze a wide range of color to denote form and texture.  Normally, it is easy to make a color a shade darker or lighter to describe how a thing is sitting in space and what is its relationship to the light source.  But with yellow, you can't simply darken it up.  when you do try to darken it, if you aren't careful you will quickly end up turning your yellow to green or worse, mud.  And lightening it up pretty much means you go to white, which, again, is a tricky proposition in watercolors.  I'll show you what I mean as I get in to the painting.

The second challenge I've set for myself is the daffodil itself.  It is not an easy thing to draw.  Essentially, you've got a disc of six petals with a cone protruding from it.  The end of the cone is frilly and furled.  And in the center of the cone you've got the stamen all loaded with pollen.  The lines are graceful and natural and easy to capture, but it can sometimes be a royal pain to get the three dimensionality just right.

Still, it is such a pretty thing.  So cheerful and strong, bobbing in the early spring breeze.  Bouncing back resiliently after an unexpected dip in temperature or a blanketing of late snow.  I have to have a go, don't I?  And today is Holly's birthday.  My step-mother.  Probably the most sunny, positive person I know.  For her, a daffodil is definitely in order!  I just had time to get the sketch done today.  Tomorrow I'll paint it.  Happy Birthday, Holly!